[PP-F4] Snow Fall <<Avalanche>> (Takao)

[Ratatosk 0]

There comes a time once every year when snow falls like tears, but that was an exception for Aincrad's fourth floor, where it snows all the damn time. A certain young man sits on a bench cursing, "[Censored]! They said it was gonna be an awesome tour god damnit!" Ratatosk was shivering because it was that cold, at least there weren't any emo teenagers around. "Sitting here won't do nothing, maybe a quest'll bring up my adrenaline. Let's see... Avalanche, I'm taking it!" He made the bulletin board empty, but didn't quite decide to do it yet because he wanted to cut apples into little shapes. "Yeah, that's right. Little bunnies." Ratatosk smiled as he saw his creations, tiny apple slices in the shapes of bunnies.

[Takao 0]

Yet another excursion in search of equipment had brought Takao to the fourth floor of Aincrad. His ventures in the snowy tundra were oft kept as short as he could possibly make them, usually only moving to and from the merchant stalls and vendor buildings. But, this time, he was stopped by a peculiar sight. Somebody who appeared to be in his teens, perhaps a bit younger than Takao himself, sitting on a bench and cursing into the wind. With a raised eyebrow, Takao watched him move to the quest board and clean out what few assignments were available to be taken. He knew «Avalanche» to be one of the quests a player could accept on the floor, and with his curiousity piqued, Takao moved closer to speak. "Hey, uhh. I saw you take «Avalanche», 'n was just curious if you wanted any help with it."

[Ratatosk 0]

Ratatosk glared at Takao, hiding his bunny shaped apple slices under his arm. "Sure, I need some help. What level are you anyways?" He saw the gear equipped on him, it was probably those of a high leveled player. "You've done this thing before, cause I haven't got a clue where I'm supposed to go." Ratatosk's gear was pretty shabby, but not as bad as a hobo's, with a little work here and there he'd be able to become a front liner and get out of this game.

[Takao 0]

Takao raised his eyebrow once more at the glare and cast a short glance behind himself, wondering if somebody had been standing behind him. Upon arriving at the realization that he was mostly alone where he stood, Takao returned his attention back onto Ratatosk. "Level? Eh..." He said, casting a short glance up to the health gauge in his peripheral vision. "'bout forty or so." He said, not entirely sure himself why an exact number hadn't been given. "Yeah, it's just out into the wilderness a ways. It's a short trip to and from, we'll be back 'fore an hour."

[Ratatosk 0]

"Back 'fore an hour? That's good, and you're level forty you say? Damn, wonder how you get to that level." Ratatosk revealed what was under his arms, a couple slices of bunny shaped apples. "You want some?" He tossed one of them to Takao then drew his sword. "Ready when you are. Oh yeah, I haven't got your name yet, what is it?" He dreamed of reaching level forty, he wanted to live in the thrill and danger of the front lines. "Also, tell me how you reached that level, was there certain quests you did? And how did you get your gear too while we're at it."

[Takao 0]

Takao chuckled nervously and nodded along. He wasn't the type to boast, and despite being rather social, he thoroughly disliked attention being centered on him. When the slices of apples were offered, he smiled and shook his head. "No thanks, I'm good." He was only given momentary respite from the barrage of questions being aimed toward him. "Er... Well... All of them, I guess." He said, exhaling a low laugh at his answer. "...and a lot of grinding. But quests give the best experience, both martially and numerically. With grinding, I usually only get col and crafting materials."

[Ratatosk 0]

Ratatosk didn't speak to someone for quite a while, most of his time was caught up in school or body guarding some Yakuza. "So how old are you anyways? You look around my age, hell your life is probably better than mine." He tossed an apple slice up in the air and caught it with two fingers, later eating it. "I guess we can wait in town a bit, or we could search for some materials, I'd prefer getting better gear though." The teenager was now near the exit of the town, raising his blade. "You coming or what?" He asked with a smile.

[Takao 0]

A shrug rolled across Takao's shoulders as he walked to catch up with Ratatosk, not bothering to draw his sword just yet despite them delving into the wilderness of the fourth floor. "I wouldn't really say my life is better." Takao commented, shaking his head at the notion. "We're all trapped in here after all." He said, completing the thought. Of course, Takao was afforded some luxury given his status as a front liner and his pension for grinding. When all else was said and done, he lived comfortably within his digital prison. "My name is Takao, by the way. 'n I'm eighteen. You?"

[Ratatosk 0]

"I'm Ratatosk, sixteen. Ever do some thug work before? That automatically makes your life better than mine, you're no thug." Ratatosk was reminded of his life in the real world before this all happened, even though he was in povery, he was still happy. His dad called it a tough time because he had to work day and night to pay the bills, and he was left all alone tending to the entire house by himself. He wondered how it must be like for his dad in the real world now that he has to do all the housework while also having his regular job as well. "Is this a material? Nope, just an apple. Wait, an apple in the snow?" This was most peculiar, snow apples don't exist, there could only be one logical explanation. It dropped from Ratatosk's pockets.

ID#52438

Loot 14

Edited March 21, 2016 by Ratatosk

[Takao 0]

"Thug work?" Takao asked, scratching his head as he mused that memories of the real world were becoming to fade away as his experiences in Aincrad grew in quantity. He remembered the faces of players and the attack patterns of monsters better than he remembers the faces of his old classmates and his own daily routines. "Huh... Well, not really. I guess I do kinda fit the "not a thug" description." Takao said with an accompanying shrug of his shoulders. "Oh, earlier you asked me how I got my equipment. I got my sword from a blacksmith named Mack, and my armour from a tailor named Ariel. Both of their shops actually happen to be located on this floor."

[Ratatosk 0]

Ratatosk thought about gear for a while, without it you'd be deader than that level one player in the fourteenth floor boss raid (No offense directed to that player). "How much time has passed since this game started? For some reason, SAO feels more like home than the real world. You get what I'm saying?" He missed playing real life offline, all his relatives and friends were there, but most of all that guy that he hated. Real life was a pain, but a paradise at the same time. Same thing here, he thought about it for a moment and saw that there really wasn't much difference between these worlds. Thinking about all of that just made his head hurt, he stepped on something and picked it up, "Oh, my first material!"

ID# 52450

Loot 19

+1 Material

Edited March 21, 2016 by Ratatosk

[Takao 0]

Takao shrugged and shook his head. "Far too long." He muttered, which filled in the silence whilst he glanced down to the clock ticking away in the corner of his peripherals. "It's been a little over a year, I think. Give or take." Takao said. As he walked, the snow beneath his boots resonated with a soft, satisfying crunching sound, which helped to fill the silence between their conversation. He mused over the notion that Aincrad felt more like home than the real world. Had it truly? It worked as a replacement, with some comfort amidst the hell that laid just outside the safe zones, but only temporarily. "I guess I kinda see where you're coming from. I still miss my friends in real life, though."

(I'ma spawn monsieur avalanche on my next post.)

[Ratatosk 0]

Ratatosk raised one of his eyebrows, "Really? It's been a year already? I don't really remember what I was doing actually..." He got a bit scared, but cut apples with his blade to comfort himself. "No turning back now, I'm going to become a front liner one day and beat this game, then I can go back to the real world. Hey, do you think there are other virtual reality games like this? I mean it's been a year already, they're not going to make two SAO's right? Wait, no way..." The young teenager had a sudden idea, what if there were two SAO's? What if there were more VRMMO's out there just waiting for him to play? "Forget about all that, let's just get back to searching for materials." Sadly nothing turned up.

ID# 52578

Loot 1

Edited March 21, 2016 by Ratatosk

[Takao 0]

Another shrug graced Takao's shoulders as his hand rose to the blade on his back. "I guess it's not impossible. The technology is there, and Full Dive technology is pretty amazing... but I imagine after all this business with SAO, not a whole lot of people would be very interested in it. Can't say for sure though. Some people might be drawn to the possibility of being trapped in a death game." Extremists and those not of sound mind weren't an oddity, especially not within the digital prison of Sword Art Online. He could only imagine that there were plenty people who would've given their left arm to get trapped in a game, but he certainly was not one of them. 

"Oh. There's our man." Takao said as he tightened his grasp on the blade and pulled it from the scabbard. "Usually it takes a bit of grinding at the ice elementals to get him to spawn. I guess somebody must've done it accidentally or somethin'." He shrugged his shoulders for the third time and disregarded the nature of its presence. Instead, he prepared a sword art by dipping down into the required pre-motion stance. As a result, his blade began to glow a pale yellow colour. Before the large ice behemoth even knew what hit him, a total of seven thrusts annihilated its health gauge.

- -

» ID : [[ 52581 ]]
» BD : [[ HIT  (6 + 3(ACC)) ]]
» MD : [[ X (2) ]]

» LD : [[ 18 (15 + 3(Search&Detect)) ]]

« Takao »
[[ 177/177 HP ]]
[[ 37/43 Energy ]] «Deadly Sins» used. (-6 Energy | +1 Energy)

« Avalanche »
[[ 0/100 HP ]]  [[ 13(DMG) + 4(Charge) * (7*1) = -119HP ]]

[Ratatosk 0]

Ratatosk watched in amazement as Takao destroyed the field boss in a single sword art. "Holy crap, how did you do that?" He was a bit slow to put two and two together, but eventually it made sense to him. "Oh, that's a sword art right? I can't do stuff like that yet since I'm only level one." The blonde went back to looking for materials, sure the easy kill of the field boss was marvelous, but that wouldn't get him any materials. "Damn, how long did it take you to be able to do sword arts like that?" His material gathering attempt was a total failure.

ID# 52586

Loot 2

Edited March 22, 2016 by Ratatosk

[Takao 0]

Takao gave his sword a habitual twirl by rolling his wrist as the colourful, confetti-like pixel remains of Avalanche disappeared. Given Ratatosk's close proximity to the monster following its death, a window appeared in front of him, awarding him with the experience and aptly named Snowfrost Potion. The brunet glanced over his shoulder and tilted his head. "Really? You should have a few sword arts available if you've got at least a rank in your weapon skill. They're not especially potent, but they're something." He said, scratching his cheek as the topic switched to how long he'd spent on training to be able to utilize the sword art that he had. "Well, uh... That was a rank four sword art, so... Maybe a little less than a month? I'm not sure exactly."

Meat Haunch used. +2 Vitamins/+1 Alcoholic

Edited March 22, 2016 by Takao

[Ratatosk 0]

Ratatosk was a bit confused, "Ranks? Sword arts? You mean I could've used a sword art all along... [Censored]! Damn it, this system is full of flaws you know that?" The blonde was angry now, he was missing out on one of the best aspect of Sword Art Online, which was sword arts themselves. It was even included in the title of the game, all this time he was doing quests and trying to get good gear just to do a sword art when he could've done them without any of that. "Well... Guess I'm a bit stupid for not realizing that, let's go search for some more materials. I guess since that quest I done, I'll be getting a butt load of xp. Anyways, thanks Takao." Ratatosk spotted a material while searching, he got happy and picked it up.

ID# 52635

Loot 18

+1 Material

Edited March 22, 2016 by Ratatosk

[Takao 0]

"Well, yeah. If you've got a few ranks in your weapon skill, you'll have a few sword arts available. There's a list in your menu somewhere, you 'oughta play around with it sometime. Some weapons have higher multipliers, while others have a broader range of options." Takao said, lifting his jade gaze upward as ice began to accumulate and grow just a few meters from them. "Take the one handed straight sword for example," He said, raising his blade as four beasts made of chunks of ice rose from the snow. "What it lacks in overall damage output, it makes up for in a variety of sword arts." As he spoke, Takao slipped into a peculiar stance; his blade was held outward and facing the monsters. Utilizing a mixture of his own martial ability augmented by the charge skill, the brunet launched forward and performed a single flip in the air. As he returned to the ground, the tip of his blade found its way into the ground, sending ripples of electricity in every direction-- sans where Ratatosk stood. The lightning obliterated the monsters, reducing them to the same colourful confetti-like pixels that Avalanche had been turned into. As the dust settled, Takao offered up a trade, and sent the spoils of the battle Ratatosk's way. "These should help you out a bit."

- -

» ID : [[ 52641 ]]
» BD : [[ HIT  (4 + 3(ACC)) ]]
» MD : [[ X (6) ]]

» LD : [[ 18 (10 + 2(Vitamins) + 3(Hands of Midas) + 3(Search&Detect)) ]]

« Takao »
[[ 182/182 HP ]] 
[[ 25/44 Energy ]] «Lightning Fall» used. (-14 Energy | +1 Energy)

« Ice Elemental »
[[ 0/100 HP ]]  [[ 13(DMG) + 4(Charge) + 1(Alcoholic) * (1*7) - 25(MIT) = -101HP ]]
« Ice Elemental »
[[ 0/100 HP ]]  [[ 13(DMG) + 4(Charge) + 1(Alcoholic) * (1*7) - 25(MIT) = -101HP ]]
« Ice Elemental »
[[ 0/100 HP ]]  [[ 13(DMG) + 4(Charge) + 1(Alcoholic) * (1*7) - 25(MIT) = -101HP ]]
« Ice Elemental »
[[ 0/100 HP ]]  [[ 13(DMG) + 4(Charge) + 1(Alcoholic) * (1*7) - 25(MIT) = -101HP ]]

Rewards
(Transferred to Ratatosk)

4 Materials
2000 Col

[Ratatosk 0]

Ratatosk watched as he used Lightning Fall, a martial arts sword art. "Jesus, that's insane! I bet you that's not your real damage output, I think you could do more than that." He was now thinking of his future equipment and skill build, of course it'd be a pure damage/accuracy one. "What do you think of a pure damage and accuracy build? Think I can pull it off?" The blonde was interested in this build he just thought of, most people with tier two gear only do around thirteen damage, but if the build he has planned works, hell be able to do nineteen using tier two, and thirteen using tier one. He snapped out of it and looked for materials, finding one somewhere on the ground.

ID#52692

Loot 16

+1 Material (Search)

+4 Materials (Takao)

+2000 Col (Takao)

Edited March 22, 2016 by Ratatosk

[Takao 0]

"That was «Lightning Fall»," Takao said, his attention staying away from Ratatosk and on the ice as it formed another group of monsters. "It's a pretty low AoE multiplier when compared to other weapons, but it's the highest available for one handed straight swords. I can do more with single target sword arts." He continued whilst preparing the same sword art again. The blade shone deep blue, and in the following seconds, Takao had repeated the motion that had destroyed the previous four ice elementals. A simple jump, an unnecessary flip-- compliments of the system-- and a wave of electricity to kill the monsters in one swift attack. The spoils were once again transferred to Ratatosk following the obliteration. "You should be able to get some decent stuff with that. As for pure damage and accuracy... Uh... Well, you'll want to invest in evasion too, probably. Otherwise you'll get hit a lot more and instagib."

- -

» ID : [[ 52701 ]]
» BD : [[ HIT  (8 + 3(ACC)) ]]
» MD : [[ X (5) ]]

» LD : [[ 24 (16 + 2(Vitamins) + 3(Hands of Midas) + 3(Search&Detect)) ]]

« Takao »
[[ 182/182 HP ]] 
[[ 12/44 Energy ]] «Lightning Fall» used. (-14 Energy | +1 Energy)

« Ice Elemental »
[[ 0/100 HP ]]  [[ 13(DMG) + 4(Charge) + 1(Alcoholic) * (1*7) - 25(MIT) = -101HP ]]
« Ice Elemental »
[[ 0/100 HP ]]  [[ 13(DMG) + 4(Charge) + 1(Alcoholic) * (1*7) - 25(MIT) = -101HP ]]
« Ice Elemental »
[[ 0/100 HP ]]  [[ 13(DMG) + 4(Charge) + 1(Alcoholic) * (1*7) - 25(MIT) = -101HP ]]
« Ice Elemental »
[[ 0/100 HP ]]  [[ 13(DMG) + 4(Charge) + 1(Alcoholic) * (1*7) - 25(MIT) = -101HP ]]

Rewards
(Transferred to Ratatosk)

8 Materials
4000 Col